"Asian F" is the third episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the forty-seventh overall. Written by series co-creator Ian Brennan and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, it first aired on Fox in the United States on October 4, 2011. The episode features the introduction of Emma Pillsbury's (Jayma Mays) and Mike Chang's (Harry Shum Jr.) parents, and the final auditions for the McKinley High production of West Side Story, in which the competition between Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley) and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) leads the former to quit New Directions.
An advance copy of the episode was released to several reviewers, and received a highly enthusiastic response. Once the episode aired many others were equally impressed, though not all. Brittany's (Heather Morris) "Run the World (Girls)" performance was hailed, and the entire Mike Chang storyline, especially his rendition of "Cool" and his initial solo dance sequence, also received favorable notice. The musical numbers were generally greeted positively, among them the three that featured Mercedes, particularly "It's All Over". However, her storyline had its detractors, mostly due to the recurrence of the Mercedes versus Rachel plot, and the inconsistency of her characterization with past appearances.
All six songs were released as singles, available for download, and two, "Fix You" and "Run the World (Girls)", charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Fix You" also charted on the Canadian Hot 100. Upon its initial airing, this episode was viewed by 8.42 million American viewers and garnered a 3.6/10 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The total viewership and ratings for this episode were down slightly from the previous episode, "I Am Unicorn".
Plot
After Mike receives an "A−" on a chemistry exam, his father (Keong Sim) is upset by this "Asian F" and the danger it poses to his chances of attending Harvard, and insists that Mike focus more on his studies and give up glee club and his girlfriend Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), who has been helping him improve his singing. Mike begs for one more chance and promises to meet with a tutor, but later decides to follow his dreams and auditions for the role of Riff in West Side Story, performing "Cool". He misses a tutoring session and is confronted by his mother (Tamlyn Tomita), and when he admits he wants to be a dancer rather than a doctor, she reveals that she gave up dreams of becoming a dancer and doesn't want her son to do the same.
To promote her candidacy for senior class president, Brittany (Heather Morris) sings a rousing song of female empowerment—"Run the World (Girls)"—at an impromptu assembly, with the help of the Cheerios and Santana (Naya Rivera), who has rejoined New Directions unbeknownst to cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). The enormous enthusiasm of the school's entire female population worries Kurt (Chris Colfer), the other candidate in the race. Kurt has given up his dream to play Tony in the musical, and gives a bouquet of roses to his boyfriend Blaine (Darren Criss), the likely choice as Tony.
Will (Matthew Morrison) is insecure about his relationship with Emma because she hasn't asked him to meet her parents, so he invites them to dinner without telling her. They mock their daughter's OCD, which angers Will, and display an extreme hair-color obsession—Emma refers to them as "ginger supremacists". Her OCD suffers a severe resurgence under the stress of their visit. A helpless Will apologizes, and joins Emma when she prays.
Mercedes (Amber Riley), supported by her boyfriend Shane (LaMarcus Tinker), auditions for the role of Maria and impresses the directors—Emma, Coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) and Artie (Kevin McHale)—with her rendition of "Spotlight". They schedule a callback between her and Rachel (Lea Michele) to help them decide who should be cast in the role. Mercedes is angry about what she perceives as continued favoritism shown to Rachel, especially in the awarding of solos, and when Will pushes her in the glee club's extra dance rehearsals that Rachel is excused from, she decides she has had enough and quits glee club. When Mercedes and Rachel compete by singing "Out Here On My Own" in the callbacks, Mercedes gives a performance that Rachel privately concedes was better, which prompts Rachel to begin a last-minute candidacy for senior class president to improve her college prospects; this dismays Kurt, who now has another rival to campaign against. The three directors decide to offer the role of Maria to both contenders, with each to do half the performances, but Mercedes is convinced she deserved to win the part outright and refuses to accept half a role. She withdraws from contention, which leaves Rachel as the sole Maria, and volunteers to join Shelby Corcoran's (Idina Menzel) new glee club. The cast list is posted, with Rachel as Maria, Blaine as Tony, Santana as Anita, Mike as Riff, Puck as Bernardo, and Kurt as Officer Krupke.
Production
The episode began filming on August 29, 2011; the finale was filmed on September 16, 2011. The script was written by series co-creator Ian Brennan and the episode was directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.
Two new sets of parents are introduced during the episode. Emma's parents, Rose and Rusty Pillsbury, are played by Valerie Mahaffey and Don Most. Mays was very excited when she learned Most, who played Ralph Malph on the 1970s sitcom Happy Days, had been cast, and exclaimed, "What? He's my father?!" Both Most and Mahaffey were so funny during the shooting of their sequence that she had to apologize for causing a portion to have to be reshot, telling them, "I'm so sorry, the back of my shoulders were shaking because I was laughing so hard."
Mike's parents, who may become recurring characters, are Tamlyn Tomita in the role of Julia Chang, and Keong Sim as Mike Chang, Sr. Recurring guest stars appearing in the episode include Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), football coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones), student Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink), teacher Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel) and football players Shane Tinsley (LaMarcus Tinker) and Azimio (James Earl).
This episode features the show's first Coldplay cover, "Fix You". Coldplay had previously refused to license their music for use on Glee, but later changed their minds. Five other songs are covered, including Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)" sung by Morris, Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight" sung by Riley, "Cool" from West Side Story sung by Shum in his first solo, "Out Here On My Own" from Fame sung by Riley and Michele, and "It's All Over" from Dreamgirls performed by Riley and most of New Directions. Riley appreciated the opportunity to perform "Spotlight", a modern pop song, "because Mercedes usually does the old diva-ish" songs. She found the episode challenging, as she "really had to think about who Mercedes is".
Reception
Ratings "Asian F" was first broadcast on October 4, 2011, in the United States on Fox. It garnered a 3.6/10 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and received 8.42 million American viewers during its initial airing. It was second for the third week in a row in its timeslot to NCIS on CBS, which earned a 4.2/12 rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and also by the third episode of New Girl, which follows Glee on Fox, and brought in a 4.3/11 rating/share and 8.65 million viewers. The Glee numbers were down slightly from the previous week's episode, "I Am Unicorn", which netted a 3.7/11 rating/share and 8.60 million viewers.
Viewership increased markedly in other countries. In the United Kingdom, "Asian F" was watched on Sky1 by 1.10 million viewers, up over 10% compared to "I Am Unicorn" in the previous week, when 995,000 viewers were watching.UK viewership data: "Asian F": "I Am Unicorn": In Australia, "Asian F" was watched by 843,000 viewers, which made Glee the eleventh most-watched program of the night. The viewership was up significantly from "I Am Unicorn" the week before, which drew 729,000 viewers, and also an improvement over the season premiere's 760,000.Australian viewership data: "Asian F": "I Am Unicorn": Season premiere ("The Purple Piano Project"): In Canada, 1.82 million viewers watched the episode, and it was the fourteenth most-viewed show of the week, up four slots and 21% from the 1.50 million viewers who watched "I Am Unicorn".
Critical reception Kristin dos Santos of E! Online and Michael Ausiello of TVLine heavily praised screener copies of the episode. Dos Santos called it "arguably the best episode of Glee, not just this season but in the history of the series", while Ausiello praised the episode as "a standout hour". Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly also viewed the episode in advance, and was similarly impressed; he wrote that it was "one of the series' best episodes ever".
A number of critics who viewed the episode when it aired were equally taken with "Asian F". The Atlantic Kevin Fallon called it Glee "best ever", while others, including Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone and Abby West of Entertainment Weekly said it was the best one of the new third season. Vanity Fair Brett Berk wrote, "This week's episode stands out as one of the most cohesive and well acted in the series's pantheon", though he wondered what had happened to the show's humorous side, something also noted by Futterman, who found it to be a significant problem: "Glee's own identity crisis of not knowing whether or not it's a sitcom has made it hard to get deeply invested in its characters." Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the producers hit every note (emotional, musical, character, plot) as squarely as Rachel Berry auditioning for a coveted role", and the episode "had emotional truth, character growth, new revelations and really good musical numbers: the kind that seem to emerge organically from the plot and deepen and advance it." AOLTV Crystal Bell said the episode delivered on the setup in the previous "I Am Unicorn" outing, and said "it definitely seems to echo the glory days" of the first season. TV Guide later included "Asian F" in its list of 2011's Top TV Episodes.
Others were not as impressed. Although he praised "fantastic performances by Harry Shum as Mike Chang and Jayma Mays as Emma", Anthony Benigno of The Faster Times criticized the "hackneyed storytelling that moves nobody forward", and IGN Robert Canning noted that the show's "inconsistent character development" was on display, though he gave the episode his best grade so far in the season, a "great" 8 out of 10. Samantha Urban of The Dallas Morning News likened "Asian F" to a "half-hearted meal": while she said the subplots featuring Mike and Emma "worked really well", the main storyline featuring Mercedes "was offensive in how lazily it was executed".